Tear Gas Tastes like Fascism

This Dude encapsulated the era in five or so words extempore, giving cinephiles of the world a rejoinder to "[Napalm] smells like...victory," 45 years later (or 57, since the Nam—Apocalypse Now opens in Saigon in 1968). Watch reporter be told, mid-question, to end the interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-SIqUKotjk

“Boy…that escalated quickly” is a meme from that movie I didn’t watch, with that comedian I don’t like, except in his “You’re Welcome, America” GW Bush one-man show. He’s like another big star, Sandler, who can be great in a drama like Uncut Gems, but whose “comedy” somehow provokes me to outrage if I don’t stop watching…Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy: “Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast!”
Champ Kind: “It jumped up a notch…”
Etc…

"You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even to talk, alone; you don’t want to 'go out of your way to make trouble'. Why not? Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty. Uncertainty is a very important factor, and, instead of decreasing as time goes on, it grows...Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D."

It’s not like there weren’t people warning about exactly this for weeks, months, years or decades, depending on how you interpret “warning” or levels of seriousness. To wit, Frank Zappa said, in 1987, that the biggest threat to the US was moving it toward fascist theocracy, which the GOP-SBC alliance started in 1980 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fam5wRXcoQE

Dan Bongino said, on February 24, "Liberals not ready for what comes next." Check the dozens of video footage clips below, most of which were just shot in LA. Speaking of shot, ICE fires first, into peaceful demonstrations; shoots clearly identifiable reporters. LAPD says ICE is inflaming the situation--all part of the plan re June 14 protests...5 agencies w/troops in LA; any group can impersonate agents and grab people off the streets...ICE agents with Nazi tattoos on their arms--recently deputized Proud Boys, etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwuJnMpMSjY

Chris Hedges on American concentration camps (in El Salvador and Cuba, for now, but coming home soon): "In the first years of the Third Reich, the Nazis operated ten camps, with about ten thousand inmates. But once they'd managed to crush all competing centers of power...the concentration camp system exploded..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHMqPBTvCx8Dan

Germans, Hungarians, Russians, Italians all Waited Until it was Too Late: Are Americans About to Join that Tragic Club? Step by Step, MAGA Is normalizing repression and setting America up for tyranny. Will we wait, like so many before us, until the knock comes to our own door? hartmannreport.com

Dave Pell: "Civilians have impersonated ICE agents while committing robbery (Pennsylvania), kidnappings (Florida, South Carolina), sexual assault (North Carolina), and other forms of public intimidation (Washington state, California)." Apparently masks are enraging when they're used to prevent the spread of a deadly virus but they're worth celebrating and cosplaying when used to terrorize communities. Ordinarily, we'd refer to this an extreme irony, but irony got deported a few weeks ago."

LAPD officer declares he is shooting a protester because he feels like it: A very agitated-looking LAPD officer seems unfit to be on duty. Beyond being hyper-vigilant and having obscured his identifying marks, this individual appears to be hunting for someone to shoot. Unable to do so, he announces he will instead shoot a protester who is annoying him, and does. https://boingboing.net/.../lapd-officer-declares-he-is...

Rep Joe Walsh: "What is happening in Los Angeles right now, and what’s been happening for the past few days, has made it crystal clear again that Trump is itching to sic the U.S. military on the American people. That’s his game plan. And that will be his game plan when he tries to cancel the 2026 midterms. Mark my words." https://socialcontractwithjoewalsh.substack.com/.../perfo...

Southern Baptists target childless women, gay marriage and porn: If it were just the online gambling they decided to take a stand against, one might hand the Southern Baptists a broken clock credit. But their disdain is hardly principled—they want to be their congregants' only flutter—and the other things on the list are gay marriage, pornography and "willfully childless" women flouting the "order of divine creation."…As annoying as it is, the Associated Press "both-sidesing" at length whether "such language is theocratic" is not the worst thing about it. That would be the theocracy. https://boingboing.net/.../southern-baptists-target...

LIES: FOX News paints LA as a warzone, while protests remain largely peaceful.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePaJJ5oMOdQ 

Chris Hayes: “Pardons for all the Jan.6 rioters on Day 1 made it crystal clear, if it hadn’t already been, that Trump doesn’t care a whit for ‘law & order’, about the Law…but public opposition to Trump is working.”